nothing can replace the sudden brain storm, the interaction, the intensity of working long hours together, but we want to hear from you. how do you feel about the yahoo decision? take our poll and hey, try not to do it during work hours. "anderson cooper" starts now. erin, thanks very much. good evening, everyone. we begin with breaking dmus and a warning for tens of millions of americans. three simple words that could save your life. do not travel. that's because if you do, you could get stuck in images like that. if you do, rescuers could get stuck trying to reach you. that warning, by the way, do not travel, comes straight from the national weather service. texas, oklahoma, kansas, all getting hammered by a storm even more punishing than the one last week. we're talking about more snow in some places that people have seen in the last 42 years. in one part of oklahoma, drivers are stranded with snow piling up to 6 feet high in some places. details now on the drivers and

the storm they're stuck in from chad myers. >> if your left too late to get home from work or from wherever you're coming from, school, whatever, you very well may have had a very hard time getting home because the snow totals were coming down so fast. amarillo, in 24 hours, picked up 19 inches of snow, all the way to woodward, oklahoma. wasn't even snowing this morning. they're now 15, and it's still snowing, and it's still blowing around. some of the winds, 60 or 70 miles per hour. creating 5 and 6-foot drifts. we're hearing some of the plows are now coming off the roads again. they can't clear them. they can't do anything with it. as soon as they clear, ten minutes later, the drifts are back in again in parts of kansas and into oklahoma. this is going to be a very difficult night. i can't stress any more what you said, do not travel, do not go out. you could get stuck, and then the people trying to get the people are getting stuck. they're sending bulldozers, literally to clear some of the snow, to get to the emergency vehicles trying to get to the people who are stuck. not a night to go outside in the high plains. >> i was trying to figure out

the first image we showed. that was a car buried under snow. it's amazing how quickly the snow has moved in. we'll check back in with you later on in the ohour as we wath the storm develop. >> i want to tell you about a different storm. it involves scandal, hippocresy, conspiracy theories, dysfunctionality, and we're not talking about washington, d.c. this involves the vatican and allegations about what could by go on behind the scenes there. there's a string of child sex scandals including some of those who will choose the predecessor to pope benedict, and now a media outlet who some believe play a role in why pope benedict is stepping down. his last day is thursday after which the college of cardinals will gather to choose a new pope. they'll be accompanied by open, loud controversy. today, we learned the archbishop

of scotland will be stepping down after allegations he made unwanted sexual advances to priests in training. cardinal roger mahony also of los angeles will be part of the conclave despite damming new revelations of his handling of pedophile priests over the year. victims and others say mahony shouldn't be part of cardinals choosing a new pope, but in addition to those two scandals, there are those explosive allegations about what may have been going on behind the scenes in vatican city. >> reporter: i will not abandon the church, benedict told the faithful in st. peter's square sunday, to the tens of thousands who listened and applauded, it was a sentimental farewell. but to investigative newspaper journalist, who has delved into alleged wrong doing at the vatican, benedict's words carried different significance.

>> translator: dithis does not mean to abandon. it means to fight, she says. last sunday, he said we are fighting against the temptashzs of power. temptations that may have proven too strong for some. degregorio is one of two journalists who have reported on allegations of vatican corruption and blackmail of gay clergy members by male prostitutes. damning headlines in the rome daily, lurepubelicca, sex and blackmailed careers are behind benedict xvi's resignation. compromised perhaps to senior levels, says a writer for the news weekly pawn r laly panoram. the details allegedly contained in a secret dossier prepared by three cardinals investigating

leaked and highly sensitive vatican documents. this man says he believes attempted by pope benedict at reform were stymied every step of the way by the church's secretive bureaucracy. in these eight years, the pope has repeatedly made calls to stop the divisions, he says, to end the power struggles, and to have more transparency, but these calls were not heeded. vatican officials have strongly denied these claims, but it would be hard to deny the catholic hierarchy is in crisis. the latest blow, the resignation of cardinal keith o'brien, who stepped down as archbishop of scotland amid allegations of inappropriate acts with training priests in the 1980s. he remains a cardinal but says he won't attend the conclave to elect a new pope. allegations, accusations, and

scandal darkening the final days of benedict's nearly eight-year reign. the two italian journalists paint a picture of a holy father overwhelmed by an unholy mess. aging, unwell, and betrayed by those who were supposed to support him. >> thank you for the prayers. >> benedict says he's not forsaking the church, but according to these accounts, it's the church bureaucracy, faction ridden and weakened by scandal, that's forsaking him. ben wedeman, cnn, rome. >> it's obviously hard to pierce the walls of secrecy surrounding the inner workings of the vatican. christiane omer pour is in rome, and john allen is also there. john, you say the idea of an existence of some sort of network of gay men or gay priests or high officials inside the vatican isn't at all improbable, but do you believe that's the reason the pope is

resigning? >> no, anderson, i don't. i think for the most part, you have to take benedict xvi at his word, that he's resigning because of his age and fatigue. on the other hand, you have to ask the question, why is he so fatigued? add least part of that picture is he has spent much of the last eight years frustrated that his efforts to be a teaching pope, to conduct a global graduate seminar in reason and faith and so on have been hampered by a kind of endless series of crises and controversies and meltdown, some coming from the outside and some self-inflicted. i think that is indeed part of the calcue ls, but i don't think there's some deep, dark secret. this is one of those cases where what you see is what you get. >> john, what is known exactly about o'brien? the allegations i have heard are there are a number of allegations apparently made by some current priests and even i

believe one former priest of inappropriate efforts to have some sort of relationship or make some sort of pass at these people when they were priests. and this is a guy who when the brit, government was considering gay marriage, came out vehemently against it, sayish, and i quote, their attempt to redefine reality is given a polite hearing. their madness is indulged. their proposal represents a grotesque version of the universely accepted rights. if he was in fact making advances at male priests, the level of hypocrisy is great. >> you're right. it almost defies belief that someone would be leading such a double life and yet taking such a hard line in public. now, of course, it is important to say that cardinal o'brien has firmly denied these charges. he has taken legal counsel, that is, he has hired a lawyer to help him respond to the charges. so as the story plays out, it

remains to be seen how much fire there is beneath the smoke. i think what is relevant for the vatican at the moment is nis has resurrected the drum beat of criticism it has faced over the years that its sort of moral preaching to the world about sexual rectitude at least in some cases are not matched on the ground by their clergy. >> the church, there are some who are alleging that these revelations, these allegations are being made in a way to kind of influence who the next pope could be. how -- how would that influence who the next pope could be? >> well, you know, this was perhaps, i would have to say in my experience, a typical lashing out by those who are trying desperately to have a better spin on this story right now. i don't buy that. i think it's the typical defensive mechanism of people who simply don't want to hear the truth, and the truth is if the church was trying to prevent, you know, a cardinal

from coming here for a reason it couldn't because there are so many of them. i mean, the disgrace of this really is that it's touched every diocese in the united states. it's exploded across europe under the auspices or rather during the reign of pope benedict, and i was told tonight this is probably going on in diocese all over the world, and one of the things that was incredible, one of the former priests said that, you know, perhaps 50% of priests who enter the priesthood may be gay. i talked to a longtime veteran journalist here in rome who said it's well known that monsignors and others in the vatican conduct affairs either with women or men. the real issue here is, there's a difference between having affairs and committing crimes against young boys, which is what happened under these priests for so many generations. >> what do you make of the church, the vatican coming forward and making a public

statement saying, essentially, this is an effort to influence the picking of the next pope? that's an extraordinary statement for them to have made. >> their insistence is this secret dossier, which allegedly talked about a gay lobby potentially having a role in the vatican leak scandal, this as far as we know has only been read by one guy, pope benedict xvi, so the pretense to know its contents may be open to question. one could argue that some sort of response had to be made, but the practical effect of using such high octane rhetoric in the statement has given additional legs to the story and made the hill the vatican has to climb to get over this that much more steep. >> christiane and john, thank you so much. just ahead, the latest on the search at sea for a family, including two young kids and their final message, we are abandoned ship. weil have the latest on that, and next, the latest you need to know about the raw politics

happening right now in washington, d.c. the search in a sea of finger pointing for a deal to cut off budget cuts at the end of the week. we're joined and told what the sources are telling them. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] i've seen incredible things. otherworldly things. but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. which is good for business. because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. suddenly, faraway places don't seem so...far away. ♪ suddenly, faraway places don't seem so...far away. oh, hi thehey!ill. are you in town for another meeting? p, i brought my a-team. vo: business trips add up to family time. this is my family. this is joe. hi joe! hi there! vo: earn a ton of extra points with the double your hhonors promotion

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try fast, long lasting gaviscon®. let's talk about raw politics and finger pointing because there's a lot of that going on. congress and the white house have less than four days to hammer out a budget cutting deal before painful forced spending cuts take effect. these are part of the cuts that both sides agreed to in 2011 to force themselves to do what voters and business leaders want them to, which is make a deal. have they? the answer is no. president obama has been touring the country, warning about pain from the automatic cuts. republicans have been turning up everywhere saying blame for the cuts should be put on the president. bob woodward said the cuts were the white house's deal, but the white house should push back on that. >> these cuts do not have to happen. congress can turn them off any

time with just a little bit of compromise. >> there's no leadership from the president. >> unless the republicans are willing to compromise. >> he's been out trying to blame republicans. >> so the question is, why won't he work with us? >> they need to come to the table with a proposal. >> i think the american people are tired of the blame game. >> with us now, gloria borger, also russ and charles blow. charles, let me start with you. you said this is an example, and i quote, feeble government at its most ineffective and self directive. >> well written. >> thank you, i appreciate that. you said it perfectly. they did this to force their own hands. if you can't force your own hand to do something nat i cannot for the life of me find anyone who thinks this is a good idea. even the people who are basically saying, we will accept it. the republicans basically are calling the president's bluff at this pount. they're saying we will accept the defense cuts because we want the rest of the cuts, but even they are not saying it's a good

idea to have it, you know, this kind of blunt instrument used to cut. they think it's just acceptable, it won't be as bad as the president says. >> ross, before, though, the obama white house was thinking republicans would not be willing to accept these kind of defense cuts back when they came up with this idea, but now, clearly, a lot of republicans who are willing, because they say cutting the budget deficit is more important. >> right, i think five years ago, the obama white house would have been right. that that was a different republican party, and the balance of power in the party has shifted from defense hawks, you might say, to deficit hawks. so i disagree a little bit with charles. i think there are at least, there are some republicans who think this is acceptable, and there are also now some republicans who will say, you know, defense has to be on the table as well. and so we're willing to do it. >> but is it good for the economy, though, ross? can you find anyone who says in the short term, in the near term, this is good for the

american economy to use this kind of blunt instrument to cut this much from the deficit? that this actually spurs the economy to do better and provides enough jobs or does it eat into the job base the way that most independents that i have read think it does? >> i think the republican argument would be that whatever short term pain it causes to the economy, steps like this, sort of these painful but necessary cuts over an extended period of time, are necessary to basically guarantee longer term economic growth, but that said, i think the problem republicans have is the long term deficit problem is an entitlements problem, and we set up this mechanism wheremaki discretionary spending. >> this isn't the big piece of the pie. this is the tiny sliver of the pie. the big piece is medicare, social security, things they're not even talking about right now. so this is not a natural

disaster. this is a manmade disaster that they made. and now that they can't figure a way out of it. >> is a deal possible? what happens? >> a deal is possible. >> by friday? >> i'm not going to say that. i'm going to say sometimes -- >> i don't see that. >> i'm not going to say they can do it by friday. in the end, they can fiddle as they always do and say, you know what, we need more flexibility so we don't take a meat ax to everything so we can decide within a certain agency what is it we want to cut and then come back and deal with it gin again. >> charles, what do you say to the republicans -- i was listening to rush limbaugh, and he said essentially this is a manufactured crisis, these aren't real cuts. this is still more spending than was spent last year. >> right, i think it's manufactured and real. like he separated it. >> but it doesn't all happen at once. >> they manufactured it and it's very real because it affects so many jobs. it has the potential to affect

so many jobs. the estimates range from a million to 2.1 million jobs at risk in one source i quoted in my last column. that could add 1.5% to the unemployment rate. >> go ahead, ross. >> the thing where rush limbaugh has a point is if you look at the point of quote/unquote cuts we have had over the last couple years, and you know, in dollar terms, they looked real. then when journalists go in and do an investigation and go to the different agencies and departments and so on, it always turns out they find a way to claim cuts. you know, claim cuts on things that they were going to cut already and so on. there's more wiggle room in the federal budget often than those absolute numbers would suggest. >> ross, here's the problem. the public doesn't know what to believe because we don't actually know what the truth is here. if you look at all these fiscal crises we have gone through, you always have to consider what the default setting is. when you have the fiscal cliff,

they couldn't go over the cliff because they didn't want to raise everybody's taxes. when owyou had the debt ceiling they couldn't do that because the whole faith and credit of the united states was on the line. in this particular crisis, and this is why charles may be right, in this particular crisis, what's at steak here? budget cuts, which, by the way, a lot of people think is a good idea. >> in theory. >> do you see a deal by the end of the week? >> i have been wrong betting against deals in the past. so i don't -- you know, the story of the last two years is that, you know, john boehner, harry reid, barack obama, always find some way to pull a deal out of the fire. so it would be silly to bet against that, but i agree with charles. it's harder in this case to see -- i think you can draw it up on paper, but it's harder to see where the parties come together. the reasonable thing to do would be to say, let's cut the amount we're going to be spending in half and let's agree on doing a little means testing to medicare, which they're both in

favor of and let's not get so focused on absolute dollar figures. >> the clock is ticking. gloria, appreciate it, charles and ross, thank you. >> a family lost at sea off the coast of san francisco, and a murder trial making the casey anthony look, well, boring. x-rated evidence, too many lies to count, plus a defendant who won a singing contest from prison. it's all bizarre. we'll be right back. concerns as we age. it has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+. i have to know the weather patterns. i upgraded to the new sprint direct connect. so i can get three times the coverage.

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welcome back. rescue teams will work through the night searching the waters off san francisco for a family that radioed the coast guard from their sinking sailboat. this was their final sos call. >> coast gaurld, coast guard, we are abandoning ship.

this is the charm bow. we're abandoned ship. >> that was yesterday afternoon. besides the sailboat's name, the charm blow, coast guard knows there were two adults and two children aboard and they didn't have a life boat. their names, however are a mystery. they're asking for the public's health in identifying them. you have been in touch with the coast guard. what is the latest on the sturch? >> we know the search will continue throughout the night. they have aircraft up there, boats on the water. they're going to be using infrared technology to see if they can isolate the individuals. they'll reassess things in the morning. we should point out, the water temperature very cold, about 50 degrees. it would be very difficult for anyone to survive. what we don't know is how they abandoned the boat. were they able to get out in a ma makeshift life raft. they mentioned something about a styrofoam cooler and a life rick. perhaps they could use that to

get off the boat safely, but again, very chilly in the water. >> i don't understand how nobody can know who these people are. doesn't somebody own the boat? isn't it registered somewhere? there were other distress calls. what was said on them? >> you know, it's a good question about the boat. at this point, there's no registry for this name, for the boat's name, so some people are speculating this might be a hoax. it would be a good thing if it were a hoax. it would be a very cruel prank. in terms of what the coast guard is saying, they believe this is entirely legilegit, we should p that out, and the other radio communication, they were able to give an approximate location, that's why the coast guard is where they are, about 65 miles off the coast of monterrey. there were fore people onboard, a husband, wife, their 4-year-old son and a cousin. and they also said the boat was taking on water very quickly and they had to get off. >> if anybody can recognize that

voice or has heard the name of that ship, the coast guard would like the information. >> up next, crime and punishment and a court trial that has captured the country's attention like no other. is the couple's salacious sexual relationship that is detailed from the witness stand that has court observers stunned. randi kaye takes an in depth look ahead. if there was a pill

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audiotape in a murder trial full of testimony that would make perry mason blush. in arizona, jodi arias was cross-examined again today. it's her tenth day on the witness stand. if she's convicted, by the way, she could get the death penalty. after lying about it to police and in extended interviews, she now admits the murder of her

ex-boyfriend in 2008, but shoe now says that was in defl sfs. to say there were surreal moments in the trial are a vast understatement. take this while she's behind bars awaiting trial in 2010. she won a holiday singing contest. ♪ hear the angel voices ♪ >> in the trial itself, there have been countless twists and turns, dirty text messages entered into evidence, nude pictures, audiotape of phone sex between the victim and defend plays in court. randi kaye reports on the case that has so many people riveted. first, i want to warn you, there are many graphic details woven through the case which may be too explicit for younger viewers. >> travis alexander never had a chance. 27 stab wounds, a gun shot to the face. his throat slit heear to ear. when friends found his body, he

had already been dead five days. >> he's -- he's dead. he's in his bedroom. in the shower. >> so there's blood. is it coming from his head? >> it's all over the place. >> has he been threatened by anyone recently? >> yes, he has. he has an ex-girlfriend who has been bothering him and following him and slashing tires and things like that. >> that ex-girlfriend is jodi arias, now on trial for murdering travis alexander back in 2008. she's facing the death penalty. this case has court watchers riveted. not only because of the sheer brutality of it but also because of the couple's salacious sexual relationship. they videotaped themselves having sex and took provocative photos. on the day of the murder, june 4th, 2008, the two snapped naked photos of each other at alexander's home, royalty before the killing. those pictures were recovered from the memory card of a digital camera police found in

his washing machine. according to investigators, a photo taken at 1:40 p.m., shows arias posing nude on alexander's bed. later, a photo was taken and deleted, showing alexander naked in the shower. then at 5 chicago 30, another photo of alexander. police say, just two minute later, he was dead. 5:32 p.m., this time stamped photo showed alexander's body on the shower floor. what exactly happened that night is still unclear. in part because investigators can't get a straight or at least consistent story out of arias. the first time she was kweged, july 15th, 2008, arias said she wasn't with alexander the day he died. this was before she knew investigators had pictures putting her at the crime scene. listen. >> i was nowhere near mesa. i was nowhere near phoenix. >> then, after blees matched a bloody handprint at the scene to

arias and told her of the photos they had found, she told a different story. this time, a home invasion. >> you didn't run to the neighbors. you didn't try calling. you knee they were in his house. >> i was really scared. i was really freaked out of my mind. >> okay. i don't believe you. >> two years later, in 2010, yet another story. yes, she says, she did kill travis alexander, but it was self-defense. her lawyer is making the case for domestic violence. >> jodi believed that travis was going to kill her. travis left jodi no other option. but to defend herself. >> as arias tells it, it all started with the naked pictures. she testified that while she and alexander were snapping photos, she dropped the camera and alexander got incredibly angry. so this time she says she grabbed the gun she knew alexander kept in his closet. >> i grabbed the gun, i ran out

of the closet. he was chasing me. i turned around. we were in the middle of the bathroom. i pointed it at him with both of my hands. i thought that would stop him. if someone were pointing a gun at me, i would stop. he just kept running. he got like a linebacker. he got kind of low and grabbed my waist. before he did that, as he was lunging at me, the gun went off. i didn't mean to shoot him. >> but what about the knife and those dozens of stab wounds? arias told the court she simply can't remember how that happened. >> once you broke away from him, what do you remember? >> almost nothing for a long time. >> do you remember stabbing travis alexander? >> i have no memory of stabbing him. >> the couple first met back in 2006 at a convention in las vegas. she was an aspiring photographer. he was a salesman and

motivational speaker who was active in the mormon church. they started dating a few months later, even though he lived in mesa, arizona, and she lived hour sas away in california. arias soon converted to mormonism like her boyfriend and agreed to be baptized. on the day of her baptism, she told the court alexander tied her up while they were still wearing sacred garments and force ed her to have anal sex. >> after this encounter on this spiritual day, how did you feel about yourself? >> i didn't feel very good. i kind of felt like i hwas a us piece of toilet paper. >> arias claims alexander often abused her physically and sexually. but on the couple's phone sex tapes played in court, she seemed to be enjoying herself. >> the way you moan, sounds like a 12-year-old girl having her first orgasm.

it's so hot. >> how things turned from phone sex to this is still a mystery, but investigators say there is no question travis alexander suffered. the medical examiner says he was stabbed first, then shot, so it may have taken him some time to die. crime scene photos show his hands bruised and bloody, which may indicate he fought off his attacker, who was stabbing him. in court today under cross-examination, the prosecutor did his best to expose jodyi arias as a cold blooded killer and shatter her testimony of what happened. >> other than you, who would be sure of your statements? >> god. >> well, god's not here. we can't subpoena him, right? >> i don't think so. >> you don't think so. are you sure that we can't? because it seems like you're leaving the door open for that. >> no matter how hard prosecutors come at her, jodi arias has stuck to her story. before the stritrial, she spoke

"inside edition" from jail. >> no jury is going to convict me. >> why not? >> i'm insnlt. you can mark my words on that. >> later in court, she said that was because she planned to kill herself first. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> fascinating trial. joining me now, jeffreyb toobin, and mark geragos, co-author of "mistrial, an inside look at how the criminal justice system works and sometimes doesn't." jeff, the details of the case are different. >> i didn't know you could say lube that often on cable television. it's unbelievable. the thing is, you know, forget putting it on television. why -- how a judge has allowed this is very interesting. >> how any judge has allowed her to sit on the stand on direct examination this long before even getting to cross is beyond

me. 30 years i have been doing this, i have never seen any defendant on the stand this long. >> the reason i think is straightforward, because it's a death penalty case. this is an interesting lesson in why death penalty cases take so long and are so expensive. the judge says, look, this person is on trial for their life. i'm going to let them try their case. i'm not going to really impose the rules of evidence. >> ten days, though. >> i have never heard of anything that long, but clearly, she has a defense, which is that i am a victim of various men. feel sorry for me. don't give me the death penalty. that's the gist. so she's allowed to do it. >> mark, how do you defend somebody who has lied consistently? >> you put her on for ten days or eight days or whatever it is, and then, you know, in that piece, the package you just did, that prosecutor, was so over the top with that question about, you sure i can't subpoena god, you hope and pray as a defense lawyer the prosecutor is going to lose his mind and start acting like a fool. if that happens, the jury might say at the end of the day, we're

going to convict her. clearly, she's guilty, but after this amount of time, we're not going to kill her, because that's really what it comes down to. >> that's what they're trying to do. and they're trying, i think, to get the jury to know this woman in all of her excentricities, her oddness, her history, and say we're going to lock this woman up, but we will not take the step of imposing the death penalty. >> but she's saying self defense. a throat slit so much the head was almost decapitated. >> that's the vehicle, all of this, whether it's battered woman, self defense, it's just a vehicle, if you will, for the defense to get her up there and try to mitigate and save her from the death penalty. >> her lawyers aren't trying to get her off? >> if they get a not guilty, they'll faint in the courtroom. >> this is all about a death penalty defense. frankly, since the judge is allowing it, it's probably her best sense because she is emerging as a personality, as

someone with a history, who is complicated, who is obviously a mess of a human being, but not someone, at least, that they hope, that the jury says we have to take the absolute maximum step and kill her. >> that's really what it is. you put her up there for that long, what you hope for is that the jury is going to say exactly what jeff was saying, they're going to get to the point where, okay, she's crazy. she did it, we know it. but do we really want to kill her? do we want to put her -- i mean, do we want to put her down? the more you usually familiarity breeds contempt. in this case, it may have the opposite effect. >> do you think the prosecutor has been doing what mark has sort of indicated, that he's making mistakes by going overboard? >> it's very hard to say. that really takes being inside the courtroom and getting a sense of the dynamic. i think the prosecutor is right to show all of the lies. i mean, what makes her story so, you know, unappealing from a jury perspective, it's not just this fairly bogus self defense argument, but you know, first

she wasn't there. then there was an intruder. then she came around to self defense. she's such an obvious and credible liar as well as someone who killed a man. that's what's really -- >> i'll take a shot. they are totally overplaying this. they could have, i think less is morwh more when it comes to this. that being up there, that sarcastic way, that generally does not play well with juries. >> as a defense attorney, i can imagine just watching her talk to police over and over again, giving multiple different stories, and then doing television interviews and saying no jury is going to convict me, from a defense lawyer's standpoint -- >> it's your worst nightmare, but i always tell this to clients. i give them my guard. i say when the police come, write on it, i want my lawyer. it doesn't matter. they still want to talk. they do not understand. i explain this to client. if the cops lie to you, it's good police work. you lie to them, that's a felony. >> they're allowed to lie to

you. >> you lie to them, it's a violation of the u.s. code, usually a felony in any other jurisdiction. people have this idea that somehow they're going to talk their way out of it. you can't stop it. >> usually they don't lie as extravagantly as she did. this was off the charts. but you know, who is to say the jury isn't buying it? >> what i can't figure out, the only mystery to me is why cable tv hasn't become fix aated on i >> >> you don't thing they have? >> we're on cable tv right now. >> i want to tell you, it hasn't been wall to wall. >> this is pretty much the first time we have done it, but hln, they've been doing it. >> fascinating stuff. thank you very much. just ahead, we'll update you on the breaking news, the blizzard p pummeling texas and oklahoma. look at the images. unbelievable. chad myers joins us again with the latest on the storm's path.y from home repair to healthcare

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more on our breaking news. this is what the texas panhandle is dealing with tonight. record amounts of snow. historic, according to the national weather service. amarillo got 19 inches just today. amarillo, texas. white-out conditions making almost all roads in the panhandle impassable. snow has been coming down fast all day. 2 to 3 inches every hour. oklahoma's also being hard hit. 56 of its counties are under a

state of emergency tonight. a lot of motorists stranded there as well. the second major storm to hammer the state in a week. can kansas is also in the path. what are we looking at? >> snow into wichita, eventually maybe an hour or two into kansas city and heavy, then pulling out of texas, out of the oklahoma panhandle, pulling away from where it has snowed so hard. you talk ability the stranded motorists, there were emergency vehicles trying to get to those who were stranded who got stranded themselves. that's how quickly it piled up with 5-foot drifts. we're still going to get more snow, but it's going to pipull f oklahoma and into kansas and missouri. there's only one little fly in the forecast of 20 inches or more still to come, a lot of rain and severe weather along the gulf coast. this rain and severe weather is cutting off some of the moisture, good news, cutting off some of the moisture that could be snow. it's raining the moisture out rather than making snow farther

to the north. there's also the potential for some severe weather. the big red boxes there, tornado watch boxes for the next few hours in mississippi, louisiana, even parts of arkansas. some of the winners, if that's the number you want to call it, 19.4, amarillo. the old record, 19.3. >> and air travel will be messed up because of that. let's get caught up on some of the other stories. >> 360 follow, the cable krablther suspected of rupturing a natural gas line before last week's deadly restaurant explosion in kansas city was working without a permit. one person was killed and several others were injured in the explosion. the long awaited civil trial against bp and its contractors opened today in new orleans. a federal judge will decide if the oil company and others were grossly negligent in the massive 2010 gulf oil spill. if so, bp could have to pay out billions more in civil damages. it's already pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to

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time now for the ridiculist. tonight, i'm very pleased to announce our long national nightmare is over. for those of us who do not drink

coffee, finally rbl finally, there is another schois. today, like a 16 ounce neon can of realized dreams, mountain dew started selling soda that you're supposed to drink in the morning. it's called kick start. it's a sparkling juice beverage with caffeine, 5% real fruit juice, and 95%, well, other stuff. plenty of people already drink soda in the morning, but see, this new thing is specially designed for the morning so you don't have to feel trashy about it. from the press release, quote, whether it's catching the first waves at sunrise, managing bu bumper to bumper traffic on the way to the officiary hitting fresh powder on the slopes at first light, new kickstart by mountain dew offers a refreshing and energizing take on your morning routine, bought what wetter way to start the day than holding a 16-ounce can of soda. i'm just glad there's now a socially acceptable aside to coffee.

>> a large black coffee. >> a what? >> large black coffee. >> you mean a venti. >> a large. >> he means a venti. >> that's large. >> no, that's 20. large is large. in fact, tall is large. and grande is spanish for large. venti is the only one that doesn't mean large. it's also the only one that is italian. congratulations. you're stupid in three languages. >> venti is a large. >> says who? >> i'm just not a fan of hot beverages. when i tried coffee for the first time on my daytime show, it didn't go so well. >> it seems so watery. yeah, i don't see the point. really? that's what people drink every day? i don't see the point of that. >> yeah, my first time trying coffee. when coke came up with a coke/coffee frankenbeverage, that didn't go well. >> i thought it's the perfect

beverage because it's coca-cola and coffee. i thought we would do a taste test. >> i like it. it kind of reminds me of -- >> that was coke black. i didn't really like it very much. there's one way to consume coffee that i haven't tried and never will. this comes from a couple on the tlc show, my strange addiction. >> i'm addicted to coffee enmas. >> she hasn't been able to function without her daily coffee enemas. a procedure where liquid is injeblthed into the colon to clean out the lower intestine. >> my initial reaction was, my god. that's disgusting. but i tried it. and now i'm addicted to coffee enemas. >> so that's two coffees to go, then.